|
| Tomorrow's
business world |
475 |
|
On the other
side of the world Malaysian-born chartered accountant Peter Ho, now based in Auckland, New
Zealand, and former diamond-drilling expert Colin Burr, now based in Adelaide, Australia,
have designed an accelerated-learning course entitled Accounting is Ezy, which is
successfully teaching the principles of accountancy to non-accountants in two days.
Smart entrepreneurs are also applying their talents to financing the electronic
revolution in schools. Bill Gates, in his latest book, Business @ The Speed Of Thought,
highlights the example of Bruce Dixon, a Melbourne, Australia, school teacher with the
core of a financing idea. Writes Gates: "Out of many discussions, conferences, and
brainstorming with teaching colleagues emerged the radical idea of having all the students
finance their own machine. Dixon, by then a technology consultant to schools, worked out a
financial model. For a monthly fee, students lease a machine and software; the vendor
provides maintenance and upgrades; and when the student graduates the family keeps the
machine."
Selling services and training with your
products
More and more major companies are also finding that
their path to the future lies in adding new services - often high quality training - to
their traditional role as manufacturers or retailers.
Probably the most dramatic example is the world's
second most valuable company:* America's General Electric Co. Its market worth at the
end of 1998: $360 billion. Its 1998 turnover: more than $100 billion. Profits: $9.3
billion.
For years a leader in manufacturing, GE "can no
longer prosper selling manufacturing goods alone".8 Says Chief Executive Jack Welch: "Our job is to sell
more than just the box."
The Welch formula is based firmly on several key trends
highlighted in chapter one of this book: from the service society to the global economy.
In 1995, GE's international revenues soared to $27 billion. The most spectacular
gains both inside North America and around the globe have been made in linking superb
servicing to manufacturing.
*
In The Fortune 500, released in April 1999, Microsoft topped GE as the company with the
world's highest market value: $418 billion. Early in 1999 Microsoft reorganized
itself into eight separate groups: each one to concentrate on servicing different
customers.
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
|
